Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-04-26
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
beauresard and Jefferson Davis-Cen.
federates Fighting the Battle Over.
New ORLEANS An,;l d

New ORLEANS, April 25.
Jefferson Davis has replied 10 the com.
munication of General Besuregard, printed
yesterday, animadverting on the remarks Of
the former, delivered st the tine of the nm.
yelling of the bronze equestrian statue of
albert Sidney johnson at Metarie cemetery
April 0. The reply says:
MY remarks were unpremeditated and
under clrcumstanc- (which made it very diff.
ncuit' II not impossible. to make an exact
report. 1t seems, however, TO have been
sufnclently clear to be understood by the
writer OF the communication, who undertakes
to reduce a quotation to plain language.
and then in explanation of his plain
language he shows he knew the meaning of
my remarks. If he did not will aid his un-
derstanding by specially stating that in NV
opinion the only mistake of General johnson
IN relation to the battle of Shiloh, was in not
making the order of march from Coriuth
towards Pittsburg landing, for which his
large experience IN the movement OF troops
peculiarly qualified him, instead of eAtrust-
Ing that duty TO General Beauregsrd, his
second in command, Who had seen compara-
lively little service with troops in the field.
II In this way, as appears by contemporaue.
Gus statements, day was needlessly spent
on the march it was a mistake with serious
consequences.
The general follows with bold assertion
that was mistaken in supposing that u tele-
graphic despatch had been lost in which GEN
eral johnson explained to me his plan of
battle. To prove my mistake the announce
ment is made that it was not lost. One
might reasonably expect after such a declar-
alton that the dispatch described by me would
be produced, but instead there is
tbo
march from Corinth an assignment TO
positions on the field, and this officers
telegram, now occupying our attention; a
poor fufillment of the hope suggested by the
round assertion that the dispatch referred to
by me had not been lost. In regard to the
last dispatch stated nothing on the 9th inst
Both dispatches were lost, but the one then
published was supplied from the original in
the possession of w. z. Johnston. 1t gave
the order of march and the general DISPOSE
ton OF the battle lines. The other, as stated.
was in cipher agreed upon between General
Johnston and myself. and only used on spec
ial occasions. The original. for obvious rea-
sons, was not, therefore, to be found in his
letter book.
shall not notice in detail the self laudation
of the long communication under review, but
will meekly say that if General Beauregard
was the author of the plan Of battle. if he as
present throughout with the troops who fought
it, if he was on the field when General John
ston fell, if the enemy had not been driven
from point to point and if General Beauregard
throughout the whole day before, as we'll as
after the death of General Johnston, did direct
general movements of our forces, and after
the tall of his chief actively press the at
tack so that the right and centre of the enemy
began to give way in confusion, if the order
to retire was not given till after an attempt
to make a concerted onslaught had been
made, and if it was not till just before sun
set that he ordered a cessation of hostilities,
then many eye witnesses of good repute have
greatly missed the important fact in regard
to the battle of Shiloh, and especially as to
how victory was well nigh won and how it
was forfeited.
have no disposition to enter into this
controversy and did not mention General
Beauregard either by name or official desig-
nation in my remarks of the 9Th inst. He
undertook to make plain, as a reference to
himself, what might generally be supposed to
belong to some staff officer, but he knew the
rightful owner and claimed it his own and
proved that it could not refer to anything
which happened on the field of Shiloh. 1t
would have been more pertinent if he had
shown that the order of march had not been
the cause of the delay on the arrival of the
troops at the point of junction.